Field programme concept
Test on Earth. Learn with precision. Claim only what survives review.
Scotland’s varied geology, weather, remoteness and research capability may support carefully designed analogue work for lunar instruments and operations. Relevance must be demonstrated case by case; resemblance alone is not evidence.
No permanent analogue facility, field site, land access, planning approval, environmental approval or campaign is confirmed by this page.
Scientific use
An analogue is a model with declared limits.
Useful analogue work starts by naming the lunar property or operational condition being represented: terrain mechanics, mineralogy, lighting, communications constraints, remoteness, human factors or another measurable feature. The campaign must also state what the site cannot reproduce, including lunar gravity, vacuum, radiation and thermal extremes.
The proposed programme would prioritise portable, reversible campaigns with clear research questions, predeclared measures, independent data review and a plan for publishing negative as well as positive results.
Evidence and context
Candidate campaigns
Start with bounded experiments, not a facility announcement.
- 01
Instrument field validation
Compare measurements against reference methods and document environmental, calibration and operator effects.
- 02
Rover and autonomy studies
Test sensing, localisation, path planning and degraded communications against defined terrain and mission scenarios.
- 03
Human factors and operations
Study procedures, workload, team coordination, decision-making and logistics without presenting simulation as astronaut training certification.
- 04
Payload integration rehearsals
Exercise interfaces, data flows, deployment sequences and failure recovery before any claim of mission readiness.
- 05
Public field science
Create supervised routes for schools and communities to work with genuine questions, data and limitations.
Site stewardship
The landscape is not a stage set.
- 01
Permission before publicity
Land access, local authority requirements, protected-site constraints and community engagement come before naming a location publicly.
- 02
Low-impact design
Use reversible equipment, defined access routes, waste controls, restoration plans and monitoring proportionate to the work.
- 03
Safety and safeguarding
Field risk, weather, remoteness, participant competence, emergency response and youth safeguarding require named ownership.
- 04
Respect local knowledge
Communities, land managers and environmental specialists should shape whether, where and how a campaign proceeds.
A field photograph is evidence that a visit occurred. It is not evidence of site control, analogue validity, mission qualification or institutional readiness.